#Who’re the Ultramarines? – Destructoid

In Warhammer 40,000, the Ultramarines are synonymous with the Area Marines. The blue-clad warriors are virtually the poster kids for the faction, typically showing because the defacto Legion every time Area Marines are featured in video video games or different visible media. However the Ultramarines are extra than simply generic Area Marine fodder. The Legion has a wealthy historical past with a Greco-Roman aptitude and even has a still-living Primarch.

Area Marines, or Adeptus Astartes, are the genetically and surgically enhanced tremendous troopers of the Imperium of Man. Area Marines have been initially categorized and separated by Legion, with every of the unique 20 Legions led by a Primarch. Primarchs are “sons” of the Emperor of Mankind, genetically engineered to embody a particular facet of the Emperor. Ultimately, throughout the thirty first millennium, a schism emerged amongst the Primarchs, resulting in a civil warfare between Legions often known as the Horus Heresy. Within the aftermath of the battle, a doctrine referred to as the Codex Astartes was created, serving in some methods to police the Area Marine Legions and cut up them into smaller Chapters.

Ideology of Ultramarines

Ultramarines have a popularity for being strict adherents to guidelines and honor, with the Codex Astartes serving as their guiding mild. The Ultramarine Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, authored the doctrine himself, and its path on group and techniques helped all loyal Area Marine Legions navigate the chaotic interval following the Horus Heresy. Although the Ultramarines have many successor Chapters, most nonetheless acknowledge and comply with the Legion’s ideologies. Nevertheless, the Legion isn’t only a assortment of compassionless soldier-bureaucrats. In contrast to many different still-loyal Area Marine Legions, Ultramarines commonly work and stay alongside peculiar people.

Guilliman was raised to respect and look after all of these round him, and that trait has largely prolonged all through the remainder of the Legion. Ultramarines commonly search perception and collaboration with their lesser counterparts, whether or not supporting a battle-locked group of Imperial Guard, sprinting again into the fray to avoid wasting civilians, and even advancing out of service to turn out to be an Ultramar senator alongside human politicians.

Whereas it’s straightforward to think about each Ultramarine as the identical, that’s not fairly the case. After 10,000 years since Legions have been first pressured to splinter into Chapters, there are some notable variations between Ultramarine organizations and their interpretation of the Codex Astartes. A few of these Chapters even veer to the intense. Take, for instance, the Novamarines Chapter. Believing Guilliman’s textual content within the Codex Astartes to be sacred, they’ve been recognized to turn out to be violent in the event that they witness different Area Marines stray too removed from its teachings.

Alternatively, there are Chapters just like the Iron Snakes, whose interpretation of justice and adherence to guidelines see prisoners tied to giant rocks within the oceans of their planet, Ithaka. There, large sea serpents referred to as Wyrms deal out sentencing. If the Wyrms don’t declare the accused after six hours, they’re an unworthy snack for the beasts and responsible of their crimes.

Protectors of Ultramar

The homeworld of the Ultramarines is Macragge, however that’s simply the crown jewel within the swathe of area they oversee, often known as the five hundred Worlds of Ultramar. The place different Area Marine Legions are content material with their space-bound fortresses or remoted homeworlds, the Ultramarines need to construct civilizations. Aside from the realm of Ultramar, solely Sol (Earth) through the Imperium and Mars through the Adeptus Mechanicus are allowed to colonize worlds within the identify of humanity, making the five hundred Worlds one thing of an exception.

Not solely are the Ultramarines and the five hundred Worlds of Ultramar a beacon for humanity, however they’re additionally concerned in among the most notable occasions within the Warhammer 40,000 timeline. Throughout the Horus Heresy, when the five hundred Phrases have been lower off from the remainder of the Imperium by huge Warp storms, Guilliman based Imperium Secundus, an appearing type of governmental cohesion for Ultramar centered on Macgragge. Guilliman’s concept in establishing Imperium Secundus was that the five hundred Worlds and different loyal planets lower off from the Imperium nonetheless wanted legislation and order, and he’d present that till the Warp storms subsided. Extra not too long ago, Ultramar was host to iconic conflicts and occasions like Abaddon’s thirteenth Black Campaign and the Plague Wars.

Exterior of simply Macragge itself, most of Ultramar’s planets are self-sufficient, that includes sprawling cities, industrial zones, farm areas, and our bodies of water. Many Ultramar worlds are modeled after Greco-Roman civilizations that includes senate halls and amphitheaters woven into the material of society. It is a far cry from what’s seen with typical phrases inside the Imerpium, typically affected by uncontrolled overpopulation or rampant environmental hazards, typically even to the data or design of the ruler. For many different Area Marine Legions particularly, many desire relative solitude or the stoic firm that solely their brother Area Marines can present. 

Tactical generalists

Whereas many Area Marine Legions are recognized for his or her particular quirk, like how the Area Wolves are primarily Area Marine werewolves, the Ultramarines don’t actually have one. These quirks are normally represented in how a Legion conducts itself in battle, with the aforementioned Area Wolves mounting large wolves and fielding their Wulfen (werewolf) warriors. If something, Ultramarines’ quirk is that they’re rule-abiding and love politics. As such, except for doing issues by the e book, the Legion doesn’t actually have a flashy fight id. Ultramarines are sometimes depicted as generalists, not specializing in a single explicit subject however possessing the flexibleness to adapt to any circumstance.

Although being a generalist isn’t as flashy as being a sci-fi werewolf or a grasp of subterfuge, it does have its benefits. Ultramarines reevaluate conditions as they develop, permitting the Legion to fall again, flank, or hunker down as wanted. Curiously Ultramarines have the report to again this technique up, bolstering among the highest project success charges amongst Legions.

Ultramarines are usually outfitted with a bolt gun, as with many Area Marine legions, however they normally forgo the long-lasting chainsword for a brief sword referred to as a gladius. The gladius is an influence weapon, buying and selling the chainsaw tooth of a chainsword for a harmful power subject encasing the blade. Ultramarines may also use nearly another kind of normal Area Marine gear, together with plasma weaponry, bounce packs, Dreadnoughts, and extra.

Whatever the perils concerned, humanity can make sure that the Ultramarines shall be on the entrance line of its protection. The Legion might seem simply to be blue Area Marines, however they’re among the many most loyal and expert warriors within the Imperium.